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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Is Atheist Richard Dawkins A Hypocrite?

Richard Dawkins is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, an author, emeritus fellow of New College Oxford, and prior to retirement was the University of Oxford's Professor for public Understanding of Science.

"More importantly," Professor Dawkins says, "I'm an atheist."

He has a worldwide following because of his strident attacks on Christianity and Judaism. He has "distinguished" himself as outspoken and fearless in his attacks on God.

In a recent interview on Qatar based Al Jazeera television---soon to be seen in America on Al Gore's former cable channel, Dawkins said he opposes the "indoctrination" of children by their parents who teach their children their faith.

Speaking about a young woman who claims she was sexually abused by a priest when she was very young, Dawkins said, "Horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long term psychological damage inflicted by bringing up the child as a Catholic in the first place."

So teaching your children your faith and raising them in your church is worse that child abuse?

Apparently in Dawkin's world it is.

At least he stands up for what he believes.

Right?

Not really.

There is no restraint when Dawkins takes on God and Christianity. Nothing off limits. Nothing sacred.

But when he talks about Islam there is a substantially different tone.

In his bestselling book, "The God Delusion," Dawkins imfamously mocked the God of the Old Testament, writing, "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction; jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, blood thirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, fillicidal, sadeomasochistic, capricious malevolent bully."

Atheists applaud.

And God says, "I love you Richard Dawkins and I can forgive you."

But what about Allah?

How does this world renowned atheist feel about Allah?

When asked if he thought the same of the God of the Koran, Dawkins ducked.

He said, "Well, um, the God of the Koran I don't know so much about."

Really?

Douglass Murray, writing for the Jewish Chronicle, asked what many have been thinking, "How can it be that the world's most fearless atheist celebrated for his strident opinions on the Christian and Jewish God, could profess to know so little about the god of the Koran?"

Remember the Danish Mohammad cartoons that were published back in 2005 and created a global uproar?

Kurt Westergaard was one of the cartoonists.

On New Year's day, 2010, Westergaard was visited at his home by a Somali-trained Islamist who attempted to decapitate him with an axe.

Westergaard escaped. The press hardly covered the story.

In February of 2013, a "Muslim looking" immigrant showed up at Westergaard's door as a postman.

The young Muslim looking immigrant fired at the 70-year old cartoonist's head from 36 inches away.

He missed. His gun jammed, Westergaard hit the man, the gun fell to the ground and the man fled.

The global media, including in the US, hardly covered the story and when they did, they simply referred to Westergaard as a "critic of Islam."

Douglass Murray observes that both Dawkins and Westergaard are critics of religion.

However Murray says, "Nothing will happen to Professor Dawkins because from the tree of anti-religious knowledge he picks only the easiest lowest hanging fruit."

The attempts on Westergaard's life have been essentially ignored by the global press.

Should a Christian or Jew attempt to murder Dawkins, it would be a continuing and breaking story worldwide.

This is a sign of the times in which we live.

It is not likely a Christian or Jew will attempt to harm Dawkins, but should they, they would be acting in direct conflict with the teaching in the Torah and the New Testament---the teachings of Jesus Himself.

However, violence against anyone speaking badly of Allah is not only condoned but advocated in the Koran.

There is a vast difference between Christianity and Islam.

Dawkins knows this.

Apparently his atheism is selective. He only believes in not believing in and blaspheming a God who loves him and seeks to forgive and restore him.

Is he a hypocrite?

I became a friend of Bill Murray after he had grown up. And had become a Christian.

In 1959 his mother, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, filed suit against his school. She claimed it was on behalf of her young son who was being forced to attend a Bible study at his public school.

That case, Murray v. Curlett, was later consolidated into Abington School District v. Schempp.

She won the case on June 17, 1963, causing the Bible and prayer to be removed from the classroom because it was now a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Madalyn founded the organization "American Atheists" and served as president from 1963 to 1986.

Bill has told me that his mother did not live out her non-faith at home---only in public.

He says growing up in the world's most atheist of her time was very different than you might think. He told me they celebrated Christmas with angels, a Christmas tree, Santa, presents and all. He said they even had prayers sometimes and Easter egg hunts.

Bill said it was only in public that his mother took on her extreme animosity toward God. He said she raised millions of dollars. And became famous.

To publicly hate God reveals much about those who do so.

Perhaps among those revelations is a person at war---not with God, but within themselves. Perhaps their heart instinctively knows there is a God, while their head and ego rebel and claim there is no such Personality.

Or are they simply hypocrites?

In either case, God loves them and has given His Son to die for them.

And ultimately Dawkins and others who share his non-faith will be granted the opportunity to follow Ms O'Hair into eternity and have a personal conversation with God about their beliefs.

Be Vigilant. Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Active. Be Blessed.

15 comments:

Richard Dawkins whole purpose in life is to convince people that there is no purpose in life. Quite a contradiction. He stands on his "moral" ground but has no basis for it since he believes we came about from rearranged pond slime and we are chemical accidents. He has no basis for anything he believes. If the bible isn't true you couldn't prove anything since only the bible, God's revealed word, gives us the basis for morality, uniformity of nature and the laws of logic--all of which he uses to try to disprove God. It is self refuting.

So now I have to submit my children to his reasoning of not teaching the Word of God to my kids? Highly unlikely, matter of fact I would love to invite to my home while we have dinner and our family devotion time because in my home God has granted my the authority to teach, mentor, pray and lead my family to Him. Mr. Dawkins will get a rude awakening that we submit to no one accept Him alone!

I reject your assumption that God is evil. Since God created everything he is the one who sets the standards for what is good and right. But if your world view is evolution, then by what standard do you determine what is right and wrong? If we are chemical accidents and rearranged pond slime, then you have no basis on which to determine anything as right and wrong. Notice it was a test of Abraham. Notice God had no intention of having Abraham killing his son, so he provided a ram.

Bathi what makes you think he readily agreed ? If you know the story Abraham always wanted a child , His wife could not get pregnant . In their senior years he and his wife had a son . The boy was cherished by Abraham and Sarah . At the time child sacrifices were quite common that region . The cultures surrounding supported it , plus worse . The OT actually speaks against it . Even reading the text from our perspective in this century one has to see how hard for Abraham this request was .

I could share my perspective on this, My ten hour shift a test from God from my perspective in this day's culture , Abraham obviously has a bigger test ;0) Judging scriptures from how we see things today sometimes will cause us to miss the real story and meaning . I believe you are reading the text from the outside looking in , From a culture that has no understanding of the cultures that were then . Slavery for example is looked upon by us as pathetic , disgusting , because well it is disgusting and pathetic . But a few thousand years ago it was like WalMart , it was everywhere . People often will see the Bible supporting slavery , actually it really does not . It says treat those slaves fairly , the same way we today would say walmart treat your employees fairly . Its not saying WalMart should be open , be in business , it is just saying since it is , be fair . Same with slavery , back then some people actually volunteered to be slaves , they could live better being owned by someone then on their own . The Bible speaks to being fair to the families of slaves etc , again other cultures where slavery was existent also did not treat slaves fairly , split up families , killed slaves for little or no reason. Etc . The Lord said things in the OT were allowed because the HARDNESS OF OUR HEARTS, and I believe Him . Since Christ twe have seemed to be moving forward . Seems to me things have gotten better in countries where Christianity has been present , not worse , and yeah not always perfectly . But people in countries like ours have it pretty good . We respect freedoms , and the choices people make under our laws . Mick Mick

I always have to laugh. If atheists don't believe in a God, then why do they do so much to discourage acknowledging Him??? Cracks me up. There's no reason or rationale for them to be so worried about something they don't believe exists!!!

Is it any wonder that the atheistic regimes of Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Pol Pot— devoid as they were of any significant Christian influence— were responsible for the mass murder of over 100 million people in their quest for dominance, more lives destroyed than in all of the religious wars in the history of the human race? These regimes were not discordant with an atheistic basis of morality; they were consistent with it.

Your comment, "your fear of your God", I have to say is nothing that believers are ashamed of or embarrassed about. And there is nothing "sad" about it all for God-fearing people. It is actually quite the opposite.

Blessings come to those who fear God!

1. WISDOM

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."Psalm 111:10

2. DELIGHT FROM OUR GOD

"the Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love." Psalm 147:11

3. LENGTH TO LIFE.

"The fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short." Proverbs 10:27

Your version is grossly incorrect and, as Paul Harvey used to say, you left out "the rest of the story".

Abraham was NOT asked to decapitate his son. He WAS told by God to slay his son, but God (being omniscient--knowing everything) already knew what would happen.

God told Abraham to take his promised son Isaac to a distant mountain with the wood for a sacrifice and sacrifice him. God knew that Abraham had the faith to believe God would either provide another sacrifice or raise his son from the dead. Indeed, when Isaac asked on the journey where the sacrifice was, Abraham told him "God will provide a lamb, my son."

And the "rest of the story"? God DID provide another sacrifice, a ram caught in a thicket. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, would come later and be the sacrificial atonement for all mankind's sins.